Veterans’ services pioneer Lidia Faranda-Hall: SA Woman of the Year finalist for Community Champion

Lidia Faranda-Hall had a lot to learn about how Australia cared for its suffering veterans after her husband was shot.

Lidia Faranda-Hall is an SA Woman of the Year Awards Community Champion finalist. Picture: Keryn Stevens

When Lidia Faranda-Hall’s husband was shot while serving with the Australian Defence Force in East Timor in 1999, she believed his battle had ended.

It turned out, it had only just begun.

In the wake of his deployment he suffered severe PTSD and alcohol misuse disorder, forcing Ms Faranda-Hall to leave her job as a university educator to become a full-time carer dealing with complicated medication and a maze of bureaucracy.

While caring for her husband, Ms Faranda-Hall discovered there were close to 6000 existing service organisations in Australia – but few would know where and how to access them.

Using her own searing personal trauma and background as an educator, Ms Faranda-Hall founded Resolute Ready – an impressive online global directory that provides a one-stop shop for 24/7 support services for military veterans, first responders and their families.

“I just thought to myself: ‘I’ve gained all this knowledge, surely I can share it with others’, because the impacts of trauma are tremendous, it doesn’t just impact the serving member themself but the whole family,” she said.

Lidia Faranda-Hall founded Resolute Ready, a one-stop shop connecting veterans and their families to services. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“Becoming a carer is a dedicated role that often comes at the expense of our own mental health, and I realised that there was a gap – I didn’t know where to actually get help.”

Ms Faranda-Hall is a finalist in The Advertiser Sunday Mail SkyCity Woman of the Year Awards, in the Community Champion category supported by Phil Hoffman Travel.

With the motto: “Online – One stop! One call! One Life!”, Ms Faranda-Hall hopes Resolute Ready can play its part in reducing the staggering veteran suicide rate by providing early intervention initiatives to reduce the harm of service trauma on relationships.

Since its launch in April last year, the site has had more than 60,000 hits worldwide.

In 2023, Ms Faranda-Hall was also given the opportunity to voice recommendations and initiatives to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide and participated in the National Advisory Committee for Open Arms as a lived experienced member.

“At one point I was dealing with a member of my family that was suicidal … I had to care for them and put the right support network in place,” Ms Faranda-Hall said.

“There’s not enough emphasis on the impact trauma has on children – a lot of grandparents of veterans end up looking after their grandchildren, because their own children are not well enough to look after their own.

“My dream is that families never have to experience that level of despair that comes with the loss of a veteran family member to suicide.”

With the program currently funded on her family’s military pension, Ms Faranda-Hall is now seeking government and private funding to broaden the service and establish a 24/7 crisis hotline for PTSD support and welfare checks.

“I had so many people say: ‘Why didn’t you leave?’ Which was so tough. But how do you put a value on a human life? I’d love to put that question forward to all those in power,” she said.

“I’m doing this for our children, their children and other military families … I may have never worn a uniform, but when you stand beside someone who has, the whole family wears the uniform.”